1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hair styler for shaping hair (including eyelashes, etc.), more particularly to a heater-type hair styler in which hair is held in a desired form by brushes, combs, or other styling means and heat applied to fix the hair in that style. The present invention typically relates to hair curlers used when curling hair.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known conventional heater type hair stylers use combs, brushers, irons, and other styling devices to style hair, eyelashes, and other body hair to a desired form, and use heat to fix the hair in that form. As the heating means, generally the styling device itself is heated or hot air is blown on the hair while held by the styling device. In hair stylers where the styling device itself is heated, a heat source is built into the handle portion holding the styling device and heat conduction used to heat the device, or a heat source is built into the styling device itself for internal heating. In both constructions, however, it is difficult to obtain a uniform heat distribution over the styling device as a whole, and local high temperature portions are formed, which can cause damage to the hair, etc.
In the hot air method, a hot air generator is built into the handle portion holding the styling device and hot air blown out toward the device, or a separate dryer is used. In this method too, however, it is difficult to ensure a uniform flow of hot air on the hair, etc., wound around the styling, and to possible overheating and damage of portions of the hair.
In conventional hair curlers, a cylindrically shaped bobbin is pre-heated by an electric or other heating means to a predetermined temperature, the portion of the hair desired to be curled is wound around the heated bobbin and fixed in place with a clip, etc., and the hair held in that wound position for a set time; thus heating the wound hair from the inside with heat from the bobbin, and forming a curl therein. For the means of heating the bobbin, electrical and other heat sources have been used to heat a heating plate to which a plurality of heating rods, over which bobbins are fitted, are attached separately. Namely, the bobbins are inserted over the heating rods and the heat from the heat source is conducted to the bobbins via the heating plate and heating rods. If the heat conductivity of the heating plate and heating rods is low, however, there is a long wait until the bobbins are heated to the usage temperature. Further, the temperature of the heating plate and heating rods is high at portions close to the heat source and lower at portions away therefrom, and accordingly, the temperature of the individual bobbins differs depending on the position of the heating rods over which the bobbins are inserted; also there are temperature differences among the individual heating rods. As a result, the temperature of the heated bobbins is not uniform and, therefore, the hair wound around the bobbins cannot be curled uniformly or, depending on the time wound, the temperature may become too high and cause damage to the hair. For this reason, in the prior art, a hair curler has been proposed in which rod-shaped heat pipes having a superior heat conductivity are used as the medium for conducting heat from the heat source to the bobbins, with bobbins inserted over the rod shaped heat pipes for uniform heating (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 54-94959). The heat pipe are used because they have a high heat conductivity, and thus heat from the heat source is quickly conducted through the heat pipes to the bobbins and the bobbins are heated in a short time. Further, a heat pipe has a uniform internal temperature, and thus the temperature thereof remains substantially the same even at a distance from the heat source, and hence the bobbins can be uniformly heated.
Nevertheless, in the prior art, when winding hair around a plurality of bobbins, a considerable time elapses from when winding hair around the first bobbin to when winding hair around the last bobbin. On the other hand, bobbin removal from the hair is easily made by simply extracting a clip, and thus can be performed in an extremely short time compared with the winding time. As a result, the heating time for the hair wound on a first bobbin is longer than the heating time for the hair wound on the last bobbin, and accordingly, the degree of curl imparted is greater for the first bobbin, and is correspondingly less for each successive bobbin, adn thus a problem arises in that the curling effect differs with each bobbin. Further, when winding heat on a bobbin, there are easy and difficult winding locations depending on whether the hair is at the front, back, etc., of the head, so that the time required for winding further differs. Moreover, the bobbins also discharge heat during this winding work, and therefore, the temperature of the bobbins when the winding is completed is low when the winding has taken a long time and is high when the winding has been completed in a short time. Therefore, the problem again arises of the occurrence of a different hair curling effect depending on the individual bobbins.
Stylers are known in which heating elements are placed in the bobbins to generate heat therein, but although the bobbins are uniformly heated, the same problem arises as in the prior art in the winding of the hair after the bobbins have been preheated. In addition, the heating elements can be used only once, so the problem of higher costs arises.